The lifestyle of a professional guitarist involves regular travelling, touring or relocating. However, the instrument is often too large and too heavy to be conveniently transported.
Today, certain companies, such as Ministar (with its Ministar Travel Guitars), specialize in the production of so-called portable electronic guitars. The developers of Ministar Travel Guitars came to the conclusion that electronic guitars do not need a body (in the traditional sense) as it is merely a tradition that does not contribute to functionality. Therefore, their products have lost this element of design.
Although this approach has solved the problem with overall dimensions, the problem of compact design and portability has remained, especially when it comes to transportation of electronic guitars. Today, numerous patents for inventions of collapsible or detachable necks are known in the art and generally achieve this object in both acoustic and electronic guitars by removing and bending strings.
The prior art known to the inventor discloses a significant number of technical solutions related to compact guitars and electronic guitars, including: U.S. Pat. No. 9,082,374B2 of Jul. 14, 2015, U.S. Pat. No. 7,579,535B2 of Aug. 25, 2009, U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,974B1 of Sep. 25, 2012, U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,005 of Sep. 7, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 6,956,157 of Oct. 18, 2005, U.S. Pat. No. 9,653,046B1 of May 16, 2017, U.S. Pat. No. 8,878,042B2 of Nov. 4, 2014 and others.
The closest analogue is the technical decision according to U.S. Pat. No. 9,908,043B2 of Mar. 6, 2018, specifically a guitar-shaped video game controller including a body having a shape that resembles a guitar body and a neck pivotally coupled to the guitar body via a hinge so that the neck can pivot between an extended position and a folded position relative to the guitar body, and comprising a retainer latch mechanism and an electric cable. The retainer latch mechanism comprises a latch connector configured to slide into a deployed position that locks the neck in an extended position to the body. The cable extends between the neck and the body and electrically connects the neck to the body irrespective of whether the neck is in the folded position or the extended position relative to the body.
The primary shortcoming of known decision is primarily the complex design of the mechanism connecting the two parts of the body, which makes it impossible to use the guitar immediately following connection of the body parts to obtain information about vibration and excursion of the strings located on the neck as a result of using various playing techniques and to maintain the level of string elasticity both when the guitar is assembled and disassembled.